Method and apparatus for defibrating cottonseed hulls



March 7 1933- G. l.. BLANCHARD 1,900,154

TING coTToNsEED HuLLs METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEFIBRA 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Feb. 19. 1950 March 7, 1933. G L BLANCHARD 1,900,154"

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEFIBRATING COTTONSEED HUL Filed Feb. 19, 1.950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 50.thehullscrapingzones.

Patented Mar. k7, 1933 Urrsl STA GEORGE L. BLANcHARmoF cALEXIco,V miraron'NIA MnTHonfANn ArPAnATns 'Fon' lnnrnmiefrrne coTToNsnEn HULLs `'l.`liis invention relates to a method and apparatus-which is particularly of yvalue'in defbrating cottonseed hulls. Inmy 4copending application Serial No.

""5 358,998, tiled April 29, 1929, there is de scribed a method and apparatus for delibrating cottonseed hulls in whicha hammer mill is employed. The hammer mill isfcaused to whirl and scrape the hull or'the skin of the fine to permit only the fibers and powder of thev hull to escape while air current `is drawnthrough-` the screen. x

lt is the general object of this invention to provide a process and apparatus for deibrating co'ttonseed hulls which will produce a cleaner product than those .generally employed and which will possess a greater capacity and in which ythe fiber screen will. possess a'longer life. n

I havefound that when cottonseed hulls are diiibered by stripping theV fibers from the hulls by hammer blades that a cleaner sepayration of the' ber from' .the hulls is attained by causing theiber to be drawn upwardly and away fromthe hammer mill inreaching the liber screen rather than the older practice of having the hammer blades'scrape the hulls against the iiber screen.

It yisl turtherV found that by providing a beater chamber or Zone in which the hulls are beat against a screen that a substantial part of the detibered hulls may be discharged from the machine separate from the liber.

. The present invention includesin general principlesa process and apparatus in which there are three different Zones of operation upon the cottonseed hulls. There is iirstv a hullkbra'nd rscreening zone in which the hulls are beaten and those hulls which are free from libersfpermitted to` escape. from the appavratus; then there'is a 'hull screening zonein which the hulls carrying VLliber are scraped 'by hammer blades. The third element conthe fiber-scraping Zonevand which is arranged lso that'mainly fibers only kare drawn'into the screening zone," the heavier hull particles being passed back to the'hull beating orrto hulls against a. screen which is suiliciently.

sists of afiber screening Zone separate fromv 'Application filed February 19,;1930. S7era`1 No; 429,541.

By provision of thesel three separateele` i ments kand the vprovision for an automatic selectionof the lproper material to pass Vfrom each-.to the other, I have found that a product is produced containing lessdirt and thrash, .and moreover the process and apparatus has a greater capacity. v

y Various further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear from the description oi' a preferred formof the process 60 and apparatus embodyingv the `invention. For this purpose there has been hereafter described a preferred form Aor example ofa processand apparatus embodying the invention.` The description is given in connection withfthe 'accompanying drawings, in which, Figure l is an elevation partially insection. 'l Fifrure 2 is anielevation at right angles to Figurel. Y, j f.

Figure 3 is a fragmentaryv section onthe 70 irregular line 3.-3 of `Figure l. Y Y f l Referring to the drawings, the apparatus is illustrated as comprising v,arrinlet 2 by means o'ffwhich cottonseed hulls can bexfed to the apparatus. The inlet 2 enters ahull brand l75 discharge chamber 3 whichincludesa rotary beater 4. which may be drivenby any suitable means, not shown, and is `provided.witha number of radially extending paddle mem'- bers `V5. The beater 4 is in operation rotated 80 clockwise, as viewed in vFigure l, andbeats the hulls against a hull screen Y6 which lpermits any hull skins that are free, or fiber, to escape vwithout passing on to thel remainder ofthe apparatus. Those hull. skins which havev iibers adhering thereto areprevented by'an air kcurrent frompassing out the hull screen. The hull. screen has comparativelycoarseout- -letsandthere is a baffle 7 which operates as a guard to'direct the ejected hull lparticles from 90 the screen 6 downward. Y The hull brand discharge chamber 3 is closed at the upper end near the inlet 3 by ay concave baiifie` 8y which prevents the beater 4 from ejecting the hulls upwardly into the chamber'9, which isa sep- 95 varation chamber.

The hullchamber has an opening communieating with a fiber scraping chamber 10. The fiberv scraping chamber l() is deiined by a lower concavev wall 11 and a roughened block 1Q 100 one of their edges becomes against which the hulls arescraped by a hammer mill member 13.

'The hammer mill member 13 is composed of a steel cylinder 16 formed of discs 17 and rods 18. On the rods 18 are pivoted hammer blades or cutters 19 of thin metal, the planes of which cutters 19 lie perpendicular to the axis of the mill member. Su'icient of the blades are pivoted on the rods 18 to together cover most of the area of the cylinder. rlhe blades 17 operate as hull scraping 'members and to facilitate this action are preferably serrated at their edges, as indicated at 20, and each blade is provided with two openings 21 by means of which they may be pivoted on the rods 18. By providing two openings the blades may be reversed and their opposite edges used in hull dull. The front edges of the blades 19 are serrated back Jfarther Vthan the rear edges so as to permit all of the serrations to be brought into etlective operation. The hammer mill member 13 is mounted on bearings outside of the scraping chamber 10 and is there driven by any suitable means (not shown) preferably in a counterclockwise manner, as viewed in Figure 1, or in'such direction as to first eject the material from the hull chamber 8 upwardly into the separation chamber 9.

The separation chamber 9 is an enlarged chamber which provides sutlicient space to permit-a rising stream of air to separate and draw upwardly any tree ibers or ibers which fee are substantially 'free from hull skin while permitting heavierVv incompletely separated particlesot1 hull and tiber to tall downwardly upon the hammer mill member and to be 4.0 thereby carried around with the same into the fiber scraping chamber 10. The top ot the separation'chamber 9 is provided with a semicylindrical fiber screen 22 having relatively `fine openings just suiicient in size to permit lthe escape of separated fibers but to prevent the escape of incompletely separated fibers. For example, suitable size of screen openings is approximately g1g inch in size. Revolvable under and in close proximity to the liber screen 22 is a beater 23 with the radial paddle arms-24 which takes fibers drawn upwardly and beats the same against the screen 22.

The screen 22 is surrounded by a hood 25 terminating in a discharge opening 26 to which in operation is attached a line leading to a suction tan for creating the current of air utilized in the process and apparatus.

There is provided in the hood '25 one or more of which two are shown, which dampers 27 to control the draft within the may be open apparatus.

There is also provided near thelower end of the separation chamber, one or more openings covered by a damper 28 for further regulation of 'the air currents within the apparatus.

severing operations when 1n the operation of the apparatus thus described. and in the process of the present invention, fiber hulls are fed continuously or intermittently into the opening 2. Here the hulls iirst contact with the beater t in the hull brand discharge chamber 3 and are directed by the beater against the hull screen y6. This permits at the start of the process and operation, the dust and tine thrash present in the hulls to pass out of the process and apparatus and also allows any hull skins that have no iiber on them to escape.

rl`he suction imposed on the opening 26 draws air through the screen 6 and prevents any hull skin bearing fiber from passing out ot the screen 6. From the chamber 3 the hull skins pass under the baffle 8 and are 'thrown to the side wall 29 ci the separation chamber 9 where the 'torce of the hammer member 15 and the uprising current of air in the sepa'- ration chamber 9 starts a whirl of material upwardly in a manner as indicated by the arrows in the figure.

Since the hull brand has less resistance to the suction of air than separated fibers, it is not drawn up into contact with the fiber beater but is in place carried around by the hammer member 15 and scraped by the hammer blades 21 ytree of its fiber against the roughened block 12 and concave wall 11 and the hulls denuded ot fiber, and then discharged into the hulll chamber 8. The roughened block 12 operates to restrain or slow down the speed at which the hull particles pass through the hull scraping chamber and is thus effective in increasing the etticiency oi3 the scraping operations.

In the hull Vdischarge chamber 3 the de-fibered hulls are again thrown against the screen 6 and are this time discharged from` being whirled back into the hull scraping zone y and accordingly, the capacity 'of the apparatus is increased. The separation of the fiber which is scraped by the hulls and is discharged .trom the process and apparatus from 'aes the fiber beater and screen which is vplaced upwardly and away from the hammer mill, is found to accomplish a cleaner separationand to prevent the inclusion in the produced libers ot a considerable amount of powdered hulls.

While the particular form or example of the vprocess and apparatus embodying this invention herein illustrated is well adapted lto carry out the objects ofthe present invention, it is to be understood that various modiiications and changes may be made 'without departing from the principles of the invenration zone, therein separating by an uprising 4 current of air the substantially ,hull-freer fibers from incompletely delinted hulls, and passing the incompletely delinted hulls to.l ank independent hull scraping zone, scraping' the bers from the hulls in said zone, and ejecting the hulls back into'the hull beating and discharge zone, and passing the bers separately from the scraping zone to saidseparation chamber. n

2. A system of debrating cottonseed hulls which comprises, rst beating the hulls against a delinted hull discharge screen simultaneously passing a current of air' through the screen sufficient to prevent bersk and ber bearing hulls from being discharged, then passingthe hulls to a separate `ber scraping zone wherein the hulls are scraped of ber, and passing a current of air through the ber scraping zone of suicient velocity to draw the separated bers upwardly from the ber scraping Zone, said latter current of air being insufficient in velocity to carry therewith the heavier delinted hulls,

s and passing the heavier delinted hulls from the 'brous scraping zone into thehull discharging zone. y

3. A process of debrating hulls which comprises,.rst passing the hulls to a delinted hull screening zone, therein beating the hulls against the screen, then passing the hulls to a separation chamber, therein subjecting the vhulls to a rising air current suicient tofcarry upwardly the separated fibers but insuicient to draw upwardly the hulls, passing the hulls to a ber scraping zone and therein scraping vthe hulls to liberate the ber therefrom, and

then subjecting thescraped hulls from the ber scraping zone-to further beating, while-- passing an air current from the hulls being beaten to said separation zone so that the 5. An apparatus for delinting ber from cottonseed hulls comprising, a ber scraping chamber, a rotor having hammer blades operative within said chamber, a supplemental hull beater chamber 'having a hull discharge screen and a rotary beater therein, said supplemental chamber communicating with the ber scraping chamber, and a ber screen disposed above and distantlyv spaced from said rotary beater, anda ber beater disposed under said screen. j I l y 6. An apparatus lfor delinting ber from cotton seed hulls comprising, a ber scraping chamber, a rotor having hammer blades 0perative within said chamber, a supplemental hull beater chamber having a hull discharge screen and a rotary beater therein, said supplemental chamber communicating with the .ber scraping chamber, a ber screen disposed above and distantly spaced from said rotary beater, a ber. beater disposed under said screen, and means for creating draft air through the ber screen for carrying bers therethrough.

7. An apparatus for delinting cottonseed hulls comprising, a main chamber, the lower part of which is closed by substantially semicylindrical walls, a rotor having `hammer blades located close to said walls, the chamber providing a large openy separation zone above the rotor, a ber screen at thejtop of said chamber, means for drawing air upwardly through said chamber, and a rotary ber beater disposed close to the ber screen.

8. Anapparatus for delinting ber from cottonseed hulls'` comprising, a hullv beater chamber having a hull discharge screen, a hammer mill chamber including a hammer mill roller, a hammer mill chamber and hull beater chamber communicating and a hammer mill member and beater revolving in opposite directions, a separation chamber above said hammer mill chamber, and a ber screen land beater at the top of said separation cham- Signed at Los Angeles, California this 10th day of February 1930.

separated bers are drawn into said sepa-kv ration zone.

4. An apparatus for delinting berA from cottonseed hulls comprising, a roller having y hammer blades operative for scraping bers from the hulls, a separate hull beater chamber adapted to discharge and receive hulls to and from the hammer blades, a delinted hull screen in said hull beater chamber, a` ber screen'receiving bers from the hammer blades, means for drawing air `through the delinted hull discharge screen and out of the ber screen, andmeans for introducing the hulls first into the hull beater chamber. 

